Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“No, you shut up. You’re going to want to hear what I have to say.”

“Oh, all right, say it.”

“My people in Washington have been working like beavers. They got a make on the prints on the glass.”

“Whose are they?”

“They belong to two people; one is Ed Shine.”

“Yes, go on.”

“The other is Gaetano Costello,” Grant said.

“Who the hell is Gaetano Costello?”

“He was in the files—he’s a second cousin to Frank Costello.”

“Who?”

“Frank Costello was the number-one man in the mob after Charlie Luciano got deported in the late thirties. You may remember that he starred in some congressional hearings many years ago.”

“So, tell me about Gaetano.”

“He emigrated from Italy in July of 1938, at the age of thirteen, quite legally; that’s when he got printed. Pretty soon, he had acquired the mob sobriquet of Eddie Numbers, because of his facility with math and money.”

“Go on.”

“Then, two years later, we have the appearance of Edward G. Shine on the scene. Little Eddie Shine entered a New York City public high school in September of 1940, giving his age as thirteen. His parents were listed in the school records as Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Shine, and here’s the good part. Mr. and Mrs. Shine lived in the same apartment building as Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Lansky.”

“Holy shit!”

“My very words when I heard about it. It appears that the mob recognized talent when they saw it, and they went to some trouble to hide little Gaetano’s light under a bushel. He graduates as Edward Shine, with honors, in June of ’forty-five, just in time to get drafted. Not surprisingly, little Eddie turns up at his physical with a perforated eardrum, making him ineligible. He applied for and was issued a passport the following year.”

“He was already a citizen?”

“Somehow, a birth certificate in his name appeared in the public records, stating that he was born in 1927 to Mr. and Mrs. Shine. I think we can attribute that to the fine Italian hand of Frank Costello, who owned many politicians. Little Eddie studies in Italy for a year, it’s not certain where, then returns to the U.S. and enters NYU, graduating in 1951 with a degree in accounting and business management. The following year, he builds his first office building.”

“What a precocious boy,” Holly said.

“From then on, he’s in the New York commercial real estate business big time, and he never seems to have any trouble getting financing.”

“Because his mob friends are laundering their cash through his projects?”

“Exactly.” Grant pulled into the parking lot of the Blood Orchid Club and parked. “And guess who he’s doing most of his business with.”

“Who?”

Then somebody opened the car door.

60

Ed Shine stood at the car door. “There you are,” he said, beaming. “Come inside, there are people I want you to meet.”

Holly and Grant got out of the car and followed Ed into the club. “Are you armed?” she whispered to him.

Grant shook his head.

There was one large, round table set for eight by the windows overlooking the golf course.